Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) encouraged farmers and ranchers to enter the off-farm or post-harvest sector in order to enjoy the added value of the agricultural sector.
“Farmers and breeders groups, farmer and breeder cooperatives, must also go into off farms, go downstream. Once again, so that the added value is enjoyed by farmers because the biggest profit is on the off farm, and of course it can create jobs. There are more and more new ones,” President Jokowi said at the Inauguration of the ICMI Central Management Council and the inauguration of the online ICMI National Working Meeting from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, Saturday.
With the movement of farmers in the post-harvest sector, farmers can also enjoy the results of the downstream activities of agricultural commodities. This is also part of the natural resource downstream program which is part of Indonesia’s structural transformation.
“We have to do this downstreaming in all sectors. Farmers must be strong in on farm (cultivation), innovation in agriculture and animal husbandry must be strong, but don’t stop there,” said President Jokowi.
President Jokowi emphasized that downstreaming should be implemented in every sector that utilizes Indonesia’s natural wealth.
In the mining sector, the President reiterated his commitment to phase out the export of raw materials in the next few years, namely for bauxite, copper, tin and gold.
In January 2020 the government has banned the export of nickel ore starting January 1, 2020, as stated in the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 11 of 2019. Since several years before, the government has also aggressively implemented a nickel downstream program.
“Not only nickel, I stopped. This year we may stop bauxite, next year copper, next year tin, next year gold, there is no such thing as exporting raw materials,” said President Jokowi.
Therefore, one of the nickel derivative products, namely steel, can generate exports of up to 20.9 billion US dollars, a significant increase compared to 2014 which was 1.1 billion US dollars.
“In 2022, I think we can achieve nickel-specific exports, which can reach 28 to 30 billion US dollars, which means it is around Rp. 420 trillion, that’s an estimate,” said President Jokowi.
Apart from downstreaming, there are several agendas for Indonesia’s structural transformation, including digital economic transformation, energy transition, and the development of the National Capital City (IKN) on the island of Kalimantan. (ojn/bbs)
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